New Biorb advice needed on cycling

[Chelled]

Hello.
I am new to fish keeping and was bought a Biorb 30ltr classic by my son. I am now aware of the cycling process (unfortunately though I didn't get this info until after I put fish in it) and I have had high ammonia levels for the past 8 weeks despite doing 20-50% water changes every other day. Levels are now 2ppm down from 6ppm. Nitrates and nitrites are both 0. My tank just does not seem to be cycling. Unfortunately I have lost 3 fish so now only have 5 harlequin rasboras and 4 emba tetras. Started off with 6 of each which I think was too many for the size of the tank.

Any advice? Thank you.

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Reduce feeding to once every second day and do a 75% water change 4-8 hours after feeding.

And do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean each day while you have ammonia or nitrite in the water.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

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Do you have a filter on the tank?
If yes, what type of filter do you have?
How often do you clean the filter and how do you clean it?

 

[Essjay]

A biorb should have a circular box containing carbon & zeolite and a circular sponge fit into the bottom of a biorb. The rocks surrounding these are the bio media.

If Chelled could confirm that s/he has these three things, we will know if he is using the correct media for the tank.